272 S Y L V A BOOK iv 



Have seen the trembling boughs with horror shake ! 



So great a conscience did the ancients make 



To cut down oaks, that it was held a crime 



In that obscure and superstitious time, 



For Dryopeius heaven did provoke, 



By daring to destroy th' ./Emonian oak ; 



And with it it's included Dryad too : 



Avenging Ceres here her faith did show 



To the wrong'd nymph ; while Erisichthon bore 



Torments, as great as was his crime before. 



Therefore it well might be esteem'd no less 



Than sacriledge, when ev'ry dark recess, 



The awful silence, and each gloomy shade, 



Was sacred by the zealous vulgar made. 



When e're they cut down groves, or spoiPd the trees, 



With gifts the ancients Pales did appease. 



Due honours once Dodona's forest had, 

 When oracles were through the oaks convey'd. 

 When woods instructed prophets to foretell, 

 And the decrees of fate in trees did dwell. 



If the aspiring plant large branches bear, 

 And beeches with extended arms appear ; 

 There near his flocks upon the cooler ground 

 The swain may lie, and with his pipe resound 

 His loves ; but let no vice these shades disgrace : 

 We ought to bear a rev'rence to the place. 

 The boughs, th' unbroken silence of a wood, 

 The leaves themselves demonstrate that some God 

 Inhabits there, whose flames might be so just, 

 To burn those groves that had been fir'd by lust. 



But through the woods while thus the rusticks sport, 

 Whole flights of birds will thither too resort ; 

 Whose diff'rent notes and murmurs fill the air : 

 Thither sad Philomela will repair ; 

 Once to her sister she complain'd, but now 

 She warbles forth her grief on ev'ry bough : 

 Fills all with Tereus crimes, her own hard fate ; 

 And makes the melting rocks compassionate. 

 Dusturb not birds which in your trees abide, 

 By them the will of heav'n is signify'd : 



